Everything about Democracy totally explained
Democracy is a system of government by which political sovereignty is retained by the people and either exercised directly by citizens or through their elected representatives. It is derived by from the
Greek δημοκρατία, "popular government" which was coined from
δήμος (
dēmos), "people" and
κράτος (
kratos), "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably
Athens.
In political theory,
democracy describes a small number of related
forms of government and also a
political philosophy. Even though there's no universally accepted definition of 'democracy', there are two principles that any definition of democracy is required to have. The first principle is that all members of the society have equal access to power and the second that all members enjoy universally recognised freedoms and liberties.
There are several varieties of democracy, some of which provide better representation and more freedoms for their citizens than others. However, if any democracy isn't carefully legislated to avoid an uneven distribution of political power with balances such as the
separation of powers, then a branch of the system of rule is able to accumulate power in a way that's harmful to democracy itself. The "
majority rule" is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government it's possible for the
rights of a minority to be abused by the "
tyranny of the majority". An essential process in representative democracies are competitive
elections, that are fair both substantively and procedurally. Furthermore,
freedom of political expression,
freedom of speech and
freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are informed and able to vote in their personal interests.
Popular sovereignty is common but not a universal motivating philosophy for establishing a democracy. In some countries, democracy is based on the philosophical principle of equal rights. Many people use the term "democracy" as shorthand for
liberal democracy, which may include additional elements such as political pluralism,
equality before the law, the
right to petition elected officials for redress of grievances,
due process,
civil liberties,
human rights, and elements of
civil society outside the government. In the
United States,
separation of powers is often cited as a supporting attribute, but in other countries, such as the
United Kingdom, the dominant philosophy is
parliamentary sovereignty (though in practice
judicial independence is generally maintained). In other cases, "democracy" is used to mean
direct democracy. Though the term "democracy" is typically used in the context of a political
state, the principles are also applicable to private
organizations and other groups.
Democracy has its origins in
Ancient Greece. However other cultures have significant contributed to the evolution of democracy such as
Ancient Rome Democracy has been called the "last form of government" and has spread considerably across the globe.
Suffrage has been expanded in many jurisdictions over time from relatively narrow groups (such as wealthy men of a particular ethnic group), but still remains a controversial issue with regard disputed territories, areas with significant
immigration, and countries that exclude certain demographic groups.
Forms of democracy
Representative
Representative democracy involves the selection of government officials by the people being represented. The most common mechanisms involve election of the candidate with a majority or a plurality of the votes.
Representatives may be elected or become diplomatic representatives by a particular district (or
constituency), or represent the entire electorate proportionally
proportional systems, with some using a combination of the two. Some representative democracies also incorporate elements of direct democracy, such as
referendums. A characteristic of representative democracy is that while the representatives are elected by the people to act in their interest, they retain the freedom to exercise their own judgment as how best to do so.
Parliamentary democracy
Parliamentary democracy where government is appointed by parliamentary representatives as opposed to a 'presidential rule' by decree dictatorship. Under a parliamentary democracy government is exercised by delegation to an executive ministry and subject to ongoing review, checks and balances by the legislative parliament elected by the people.
Liberal democracy
A
Liberal democracy is a representative democracy in which the ability of the elected representatives to exercise decision-making power is subject to the rule of law, and usually moderated by a constitution that emphasizes the protection of the rights and freedoms of individuals, and which places constraints on the leaders and on the extent to which the will of the majority can be exercised against the rights of minorities (see
civil liberties).
Direct Democracy
Direct democracy is a political system where the citizens participate in the decision-making personally, contrary to relying on intermediaries or representatives. The supporters of direct democracy argue that democracy is more than merely a procedural issue (for example, voting). Most direct democracies to date have been weak forms, relatively small communities, usually
city-states. However, some see the extensive use of
referendums, as in
California, as akin to direct democracy in a very large polity with more than 20 million in California, 1898-1998
(2000) (ISBN 0-8047-3821-1). In
Switzerland, five million voters decide on national referendums and
initiatives two to four times a year; direct democratic instruments are also well established at the cantonal and communal level.
Vermont towns have been known for their yearly town meetings, held every March to decide on local issues.
Socialist Democracy
Socialist thought has several different views on democracy.
Social democracy,
democratic socialism, and the
dictatorship of the proletariat (usually exercised through
Soviet democracy) are some examples. Many democratic socialists and social democrats believe in a form of
participatory democracy and
workplace democracy combined with a
representative democracy.
Within
Marxist orthodoxy there's a hostility to what is commonly called "liberal democracy", which they simply refer to as parliamentary democracy because of its often centralized nature. Because of their desire to eliminate the political elitism they see in capitalism,
Marxists,
Leninists and
Trotskyists believe in
direct democracy implemented though a system of
communes (which are sometimes called
soviets). This system ultimately manifests itself as council democracy and begins with workplace democracy. (See
Democracy in Marxism)
Anarchist Democracy
The only form of democracy considered acceptable to many anarchists is direct democracy. Some
anarchists oppose direct democracy while others favour it.
Pierre-Joseph Proudhon argued that the only acceptable form of direct democracy is one in which it's recognized that majority decisions are not binding on the minority, even when unanimous. However,
anarcho-communist Murray Bookchin criticized
individualist anarchists for opposing democracy, and says "majority rule" is consistent with anarchism.
Some anarcho-communists oppose the majoritarian nature of direct democracy, feeling that it can impede individual liberty and opt in favour of a non-majoritarian form of
consensus democracy, similar to Proudhon's position on direct democracy.
Iroquois Democracy
Iroquois society had a form of participatory democracy and representative democracy. Iroquois government and law was discussed by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Because of this, some scholars regard it to have influenced the formation of American representative democracy. However scholars who reject
multiculturalism disagree that the influence existed or was of any great importance.
Sortition
Sometimes called "democracy without elections",
sortition is the process of choosing decision makers via a random process. The intention is that those chosen will be representative of the opinions and interests of the people at large, and be more fair and impartial than an elected official. The technique was in widespread use in
Athenian Democracy and is still used in modern
jury selection. It isn't universally agreed that sortition should be considered "democracy" due to the lack of actual elections.
Consensus democracy
Consensus democracy requires varying degrees of consensus rather than just a mere democratic majority. It typically attempts to protect minority rights from domination by majority rule.
Interactive Democracy
Interactive Democracy seeks to utilise information technology to involve voters in law making. It provides a system for proposing new laws, prioritising proposals, clarifying them through parliament and validating them through referendum.
History
Ancient origins
The term
democracy first appeared in
ancient Greek political and philosophical thought. The
philosopher Plato contrasted
democracy, the system of "rule by the governed", with the alternative systems of
monarchy (rule by one individual),
oligarchy (rule by a small élite class) and
timocracy.
Although
Athenian democracy is today considered by many to have been a form of direct democracy, originally it had two distinguishing features: firstly the allotment (selection by lot) of ordinary citizens to government offices and courts, and secondarily the assembly of all the citizens. All the male Athenian citizens were eligible to speak and vote in the Assembly, which set the laws of the city-state, but neither political rights, nor citizenship, were granted to
women,
slaves, or
metics. Of the 250,000 inhabitants only some 30,000 on average were citizens. Of those 30,000 perhaps 5,000 might regularly attend one or more meetings of the popular Assembly. Most of the officers and magistrates of Athenian government were allotted; only the generals (
strategoi) and a few other officers were elected.
Middle Ages
During the
Middle Ages, there were various systems involving elections or assemblies, although often only involving a minority of the population, such as the election of
Gopala in
Bengal, the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the
Althing in
Iceland, certain
medieval Italian city-states such as
Venice, the
tuatha system in early medieval
Ireland, the
Veche in
Novgorod and
Pskov Republics of medieval
Russia,
Scandinavian
Things,
The States in
Tyrol and
Switzerland and the autonomous merchant city of
Sakai in the 16th century in Japan. However, participation was often restricted to a minority, and so may be better classified as
oligarchy. Most regions during the middle-ages were ruled by clergy or feudal lords.
The
Parliament of England had its roots in the restrictions on the power of kings written into
Magna Carta. The first elected parliament was
De Montfort's Parliament in England in 1265. However only a small minority actually had a voice; Parliament was elected by only a few percent of the population (less than 3% in 1780.), and the system had problematic features such as
rotten boroughs. The power to call parliament was at the pleasure of the monarch (usually when he or she needed funds). After the
Glorious Revolution of 1688, the
English Bill of Rights was enacted in 1689, which codified certain rights and increased the influence of the Parliament.
Democracy was also seen to a certain extent in
bands and
tribes such as the
Iroquois Confederacy. However, in the Iroquois Confederacy only the males of certain clans could be leaders and some clans were excluded. Only the oldest females from the same clans could choose and remove the leaders. This excluded most of the population. An interesting detail is that there should be consensus among the leaders, not majority support decided by
voting, when making decisions.
Band societies, such as the
Bushmen, which usually number 20-50 people in the band often don't have leaders and make decisions based on consensus among the majority. In
Melanesia, farming village communities have traditionally been egalitarian and lacking in a rigid, authoritarian hierarchy. Although a
"Big man" or "Big woman" could gain influence, that influence was conditional on a continued demonstration of leadership skills, and on the willingness of the community. Every person was expected to share in communal duties, and entitled to participate in communal decisions. However, strong social pressure encouraged conformity and discouraged individualism.
18th and 19th centuries
Although not described as a democracy by the
founding fathers, the
United States has been described as the first liberal democracy on the basis that its founders shared a commitment to the principle of natural freedom and equality. The
United States Constitution, adopted in 1788, provided for an elected government and protected civil rights and liberties. However, in the colonial period before 1776, only adult white male property owners could vote; enslaved Africans, free black people and women were not extended the franchise. On the
American frontier, democracy became a way of life, with widespread social, economic and political equality. However the frontier didn't produce much democracy in
Canada,
Australia or
Russia. By the 1840s almost all property restrictions were ended and nearly all white adult male citizens could vote; and turnout averaged 60-80% in frequent elections for local, state and national officials. The system gradually evolved, from
Jeffersonian Democracy to
Jacksonian Democracy and beyond. In
Reconstruction after the Civil War (late 1860s) the newly freed slaves became citizens with (in the case of men) the right to vote.
In 1789,
Revolutionary France adopted the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and, although short-lived, the
National Convention was elected by all males.
Liberal democracies were few and often short-lived before the late nineteenth century. Various nations and territories have claimed to be the first with
universal suffrage.
20th century
20th century transitions to liberal democracy have come in successive "waves of democracy," variously resulting from wars, revolutions,
decolonization, and economic circumstances.
World War I and the dissolution of the
Ottoman and
Austro-Hungarian empires resulted in the creation of new nation-states in Europe, most of them at least nominally democratic. In the 1920s democracy flourished, but the
Great Depression brought disenchantment, and most of the countries of Europe, Latin America, and Asia turned to strong-man rule or dictatorships.
Fascism and dictatorships flourished in
Nazi Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal, as well as nondemocratic regimes in the Baltics, the Balkans, Brazil, Cuba, China, and Japan, among others.
World War II brought a definitive reversal of this trend in western Europe. The successful democratization of the
American, British, and French sectors of occupied Germany (disputed
(External Link
)), Austria, Italy, and the
occupied Japan served as a model for the later theory of
regime change. However, most of
Eastern Europe, including the
Soviet sector of Germany was forced into the non-democratic
Soviet bloc. The war was followed by
decolonization, and again most of the new independent states had nominally democratic constitutions. India, however emerged as the world's largest democracy and continues to be so. In the decades following World War II, most western democratic nations had
mixed economies and developed a
welfare state, reflecting a general consensus among their electorates and political parties. In the 1950s and 1960s, economic growth was high in both the western and
Communist countries; it later declined in the state-controlled economies. By 1960, the vast majority of nation-states were nominally democracies, although the majority of the world's populations lived in nations that experienced sham elections, and other forms of subterfuge (particularly in Communist nations and the former colonies.)
A subsequent wave of
democratization brought substantial gains toward true liberal democracy for many nations.
Spain,
Portugal (1974), and several of the military dictatorships in
South America returned to civilian rule in the late 1970s and early 1980s (
Argentina in 1983,
Bolivia,
Uruguay in 1984,
Brazil in 1985, and
Chile in the early 1990s). This was followed by nations in
East and
South Asia by the mid- to late 1980s. Economic malaise in the 1980s, along with resentment of communist oppression, contributed to the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the associated end of the
Cold War, and the democratization and
liberalization of the former
Eastern bloc countries. The most successful of the new democracies were those geographically and culturally closest to western Europe, and they're now members or candidate members of the
European Union . The liberal trend spread to some nations in
Africa in the 1990s, most prominently in
South Africa. Some recent examples of attempts of liberalization include the
Indonesian Revolution of 1998, the
Bulldozer Revolution in
Yugoslavia, the
Rose Revolution in
Georgia, the
Orange Revolution in
Ukraine, the
Cedar Revolution in
Lebanon, and the
Tulip Revolution in
Kyrgyzstan.
Currently, there are 123 countries that are democratic, and the trend is increasing (up from 40 in 1972). As such, it has been speculated that this trend may continue in the future to the point where liberal democratic nation-states become the universal standard form of human
society. This prediction forms the core of
Francis Fukayama's "
End of History" controversial theory. These theories are criticized by those who fear an evolution of liberal democracies to
Post-democracy, and other who points out the high number of
illiberal democracies.
Theory
Aristotle
Aristotle contrasted rule by the many (democracy/
polity), with rule by the few (
oligarchy/
aristocracy), and with rule by a single person (
tyranny/
monarchy or today
autocracy). He also thought that there was a good and a bad variant of each system (he considered democracy to be the degenerate counterpart to polity).
For Aristotle the underlying principle of democracy is freedom, since only in a democracy the citizens can have a share in freedom. In essence, he argues that this is what every democracy should make its aim. There are two main aspects of freedom: being ruled and ruling in turn, since everyone is equal according to number, not merit, and to be able to live as one pleases.
Conceptions
Among political theorists, there are many contending conceptions of democracy.
- Aggregative democracy uses democratic processes to solicit citizens’ preferences and then aggregate them together to determine what social policies society should adopt. Therefore, proponents of this view hold that democratic participation should primarily focus on voting, where the policy with the most votes gets implemented. There are different variants of this:
- Under minimalism, democracy is a system of government in which citizens give teams of political leaders the right to rule in periodic elections. According to this minimalist conception, citizens can't and shouldn't “rule” because, for example, on most issues, most of the time, they've no clear views or their views are not well-founded. Joseph Schumpeter articulated this view most famously in his book Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. Contemporary proponents of minimalism include William H. Riker, Adam Przeworski, Richard Posner.
- Direct democracy, on the other hand, holds that citizens should participate directly, not through their representatives, in making laws and policies. Proponents of direct democracy offer varied reasons to support this view. Political activity can be valuable in itself, it socializes and educates citizens, and popular participation can check powerful elites. Most importantly, citizens don't really rule themselves unless they directly decide laws and policies.
- Governments will tend to produce laws and policies that are close to the views of the median voter — with half to his left and the other half to his right. This isn't actually a desirable outcome as it represents the action of self-interested and somewhat unaccountable political elites competing for votes. Downs suggests that ideological political parties are necessary to act as a mediating broker between individual and governments.Anthony Downs laid out this view in his 1957 book An Economic Theory of Democracy.
- Robert A. Dahl argues that the fundamental democratic principle is that, when it comes to binding collective decisions, each person in a political community is entitled to have his/her interests be given equal consideration (not necessarily that all people are equally satisfied by the collective decision). He uses the term polyarchy to refer to societies in which there exists a certain set of institutions and procedures which are perceived as leading to such democracy. First and foremost among these institutions is the regular occurrence of free and open elections which are used to select representatives who then manage all or most of the public policy of the society. However, these polyarchic procedures may not create a full democracy if, for example, poverty prevents political participation. Some see a problem with the wealthy having more influence and therefore argue for reforms like campaign finance reform. Some may see it as a problem that the majority of the voters decide policy, as opposed to majority rule of the entire population. This can be used as an argument for making political participation mandatory, like compulsory voting or for making it more patient (non-compulsory) by simply refusing power to the government until the full majority feels inclined to speak their minds.
- Deliberative democracy is based on the notion that democracy is government by discussion. Deliberative democrats contend that laws and policies should be based upon reasons that all citizens can accept. The political arena should be one in which leaders and citizens make arguments, listen, and change their minds.
- Radical democracy is based on the idea that there are hierarchical and oppressive power relations that exist in society. Democracy's role is to make visible and challenge those relations by allowing for difference, dissent and antagonisms in decision making processes.
Democracy and republic
Constitutional monarchs and upper chambers
Initially after the American and French revolutions the question was open whether a democracy, in order to restrain unchecked majority rule, should have an elitist
upper chamber, the members perhaps appointed meritorious experts or having lifetime tenures, or should have a
constitutional monarch with limited but real powers. Some countries (as Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Scandinavian countries and Japan) turned powerful monarchs into constitutional monarchs with limited or, often gradually, merely symbolic roles. Often the monarchy was abolished along with the aristocratic system (as in the U.S., France, China, Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Italy, Greece and Egypt). Many nations had elite upper houses of legislatures which often had lifetime tenure, but eventually these senates lost power (as in Britain) or else became elective and remained powerful (as in the United States).
Supranational democracy
Qualified majority voting (QMV) is designed by the
Treaty of Rome to be the principal method of reaching decisions in the
European Council of Ministers. This system allocates votes to member states in part according to their population, but heavily weighted in favour of the smaller states. This might be seen as a form of representative democracy, but representatives to the Council might be appointed rather than directly elected. Some might consider the "individuals" being democratically represented to be states rather than people, as with many other
international organizations.
European Parliament members are democratically directly elected on the basis of universal suffrage, may be seen as an example of a
supranational democratic institution.
Non-government democracy
Aside from the public sphere, similar democratic principles and mechanisms of voting and representation have been used to govern other kinds of communities and organizations.
Many non-governmental organisations decide policy and leadership by voting.
Most trade unions choose their leadership through democratic elections.
Cooperatives are enterprises owned and democratically controlled by their customers or workers.
Quotes
Democracy...is government by discussion. » :-John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Democracy is a system ensuring that the people are governed no better than they deserve. » :-George Bernard Shaw
The strongest argument against democracy is a five minute discussion with the average voter. » :-Sir Winston Churchill
Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried. » :-Sir Winston Churchill
In the case of a word like DEMOCRACY, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides. It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we're praising it: consequently the defenders of every kind of régime claim that it's a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning. Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.
» :-George Orwell, Politics and the English Language
The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy. » :-Alex Carey,
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